Task 2d: Inquiry Task

For this task we were asked to answer a few questions. Looking more into how we reflect on our work on a daily basis. The previous tasks in this section have really helped me to answer these. 

Please see the questions and answers below:

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?
Since I have been in the performing arts industry from a youn age, it's all I know. I love the performing arts and I knew from a young age this is what I wanted to do. To me there is no end to what you can learn in this industry and as I love to learn it allows me to keep improving in my work. I love to learn new styles of dance and sharing them with participants to my classes. I don't tend to 'admire' famous people. I am far more inspired by the people and participants I work with. Everyone has different thought processes and I love to get ideas from the people around me, be it children or the elderly or somewhere in between. I feel you can learn so much from others and they will give you ideas you have never even thought of!

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?
As much as I love my job, there are a few down points to it. THE STRESS! Being a dance teacher can be really stressful, planning all the lessons making sure they are perfect, then you get to the lesson and everything has to change! To just simply being on the road all day driving from one place to another and trying to fit in eating around this (so your car ends up being your temporary home.) One of the companies I work for took note of how stressed we all were in a meeting we had, in which they took notes and wrote a blog on dealing with stress and have put in policies to help us with stress.
http://www.therightstepdc.co.uk/tag/stress-free-freelancer/
Also I am my biggest critic and can be very hard on myself sometimes which can tend to get me down a lot. This actually happened last night when I was taking over a class. In my eyes it went terribly wrong. I was so upset and angry with myself. But the previous teacher asked me how it went, and as you do i told her it was awful. However she came back to me and really reassured me: 

1. It was my first time doing anything like this.
2. I am only human, and we all make mistakes.
3. She stated ' I still question myself every single class but that's what helps us continuously improve.'

This really helped me, as she had so many valid truthful points to make me realise it wasn't that bad. This is why I love the performing arts community, because once your in it everyone can help you. 

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

I love that no class is the same. You can have a regular class each week, and each time you walk in there, there will be something completely different about it. This keeps us on our toes! I love meeting new people, whether networking or just a new person coming to a class. I must admit, one of my favourite jobs I do is teaching the elderly. I regularly go into care homes and teach a class and I have got to say it is the most rewarding job I have ever done. They really appreciate you coming, even if you end up chatting a lot of the time! They have fantastic stories to share and are just so inspirational. The company that I work for doing this, I really admire. Purely because they do this work (and so many others!) For personal reasons this is something I have wanted to do since the age of around 15 and now that I am doing it it really makes me feel amazing every time I go. 

What do you feel you don't understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

At this point in time, I can't think of anything in particular that I don't understand. But when this situation occurs I am a firm believer of CPD (continued professional development) and the more you do the more you understand. You can find CPD sessions all of the time, and they do these in a range of subjects. Also I have a good network of people around me, so if I can't understand something, I'll tend to arrange a phone call, or preferably a meet up to discuss my questions and either they help me there and then, or they will point me in the right direction. Quite a good example of this on a small scale was this Monday just gone. We had a breeze session for all Module 1's with Paula (see a previous blog) where a lot of us had questions about the next tasks coming a long. After we had discussed as a group, I believe I can say confidently that we were all feeling so much better about the tasks ahead. It's amazing what a little chat can do!

How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For e.g. what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?

Being a dancer/dance teacher you come across situations and all sorts of different people all of the time. One thing I had noticed the more teaching I was doing, was various mental health conditions. Now I do know a bit about mental health and I do want to go onto dance therapy later on. But I didn't feel completely comfortable at first. So I done a CPD training session over the summer on 'Mental Health Awareness and Dementia'. After going through the session I was so much more confident in how to create a class where if I did have someone with say ADHD I could prepare specifically for them and the best way to teach them. Now obviously you can have your plan all ready and perfect and when it comes to the class various situations can occur, then you'll have to think on the spot. But I believe it mainly comes down to common sense with how you deal with a situation. I can't really explain what to do, as anything could happen, then it would come to on the spot thinking, observing the situation quickly: what can I do to help? is anyone in danger? how can I calm this situation?

Disciplinary responses all depend on you as a person/teacher and 'what do you think is the most appropriate way to do this?' Age is a big factor in this i believe because working with a child is completely different to working with an adult. With regards to physical contact, I have a qualification in safe guarding so I know the appropriate ways quite well. You should obviously never touch anyone inappropriately, and should always ask if you can touch them because some people may react badly to contact as you may not know whether they have a mental health condition and as dancers contact is a vital part whether in choreography or technical training. 

I hope that I have answered these well. Any feedback would be great! I enjoyed doing them as it really made me reflect on my career as a whole, and it's nice to look back on what you have done. 

:)